REFLECTIONS ON THE TIGRETT STORY AS A CASE STUDY:
Isaac Tigrett's experiences and opinions have been known to the Sai
movement for decades, at least since they were first aired by R. Lowenberg
in one of his several inaccurate and often fanciful hagiographies devoted
to Sathya Sai Baba. Tigrett's experiences of 'miracles' he attributed
to Sathya Sai Baba were reported there without any critical approach whatever.
This is not to say that Tigrett did not experience (i.e. subjectively)
what he also has reported in various connections.
No one can cogently deny that very little is known by the use of rigorous
methods of investigation about the causes of most paranormal experiences,
including so-called 'Sai leelas'.. All the reported ''leelas' or alleged
'miracles attributed to Sai Baba have long been recorded in diverse cultures
as far back as history goes... and though they differ in detail, they
all fall into groups with common features. For example, healings are reported
in countless connections, attributed to countless persons, deities, idols
etc. Likewise 'spontaneous' manifestations, coincidences, synchronicities,
thought transferences, bilocation... you name it. In no case can the causal
factors be traced or adequately explained by anyone.
Add to this the fact that all these experiences are subjective... that
is, one person has the experience while others nearby invariably do not.
When they seem to be commonly experienced, it is surely often due to a
high degree of suggestion, expectation, 'group effect' or even 'mass hypnosis'
and many other predispositional factors. Sai devotees often describe seeing
him take on different forms, while others present at the same time do
not see any difference. This suggest that the phenomenon may well be akin
to deep hypnosis, for who has not seen the shows of paul McKenna or others
where people evidently are convinced of the most unlikely and amusing
things... fully believing they see and touch and taste something totally
different to what all others can observe them doing.
There are practically no experiences described in spiritual literature
that are not also described in the literature of drugs and psychedelics.
The experience of LSD 25 ius known to open some takers to amazing experiences,
both extremely hallucinatory and yet also extremely penetrating awareness
of 'normal reality', even with extreme mind-reading facility, complete
freedom from mind-created illusions or stresses and other indescribable
aspects of the cosmos in which we live. Such psycho-pharmacological agents
do usually cause 'total' hallucinations - for example, seeing everything
changed into shapes and forms entirely foreign to one's normal perceptions
and even one's own identiy apparently changed. However, similar hallucinations
occur in many other ways...a very high temperature can transform the perceived
world beyond normal recognition. There are diverse practices that cause
'transcendental states' from extreme fasting (esp. when the first nourishment
is taken afterwards); and extreme bleeding, as practiced in some cultures
as part of religious festivals - in Italy, the Philippines. Even a hard
fall onto the coccyx of the spine is reported as having brought on so-called
'complete kundalini rising' (for want of a better term).
Now, these considerations were a preamble to considering Tigrett's experiences.
He has made no secret of the fact that he was a major drinker and drug
taker from the 60s onwards. He also told how he was strongly 'under the
influence' of drink when he frove off a cliff and felt that Sai Baba held
around him and saved his life. This vision of Sai Baba saving him is still
obviously remarkable. However, one cannot lesap to conclusions about the
cause of this. Apart from being drunk (when consciousness grip on reality
is tenuous and hallucination notr far away), he may also have taken drugs...
or may have been subject to the common phenomenon among drug-takers of
'flashback', which occurs especially under extreme stress (which he was
under when his car took off, we can guess?). Add to the fact that he had
been concentrating on the Sai form and meditating etc. etc. for years
before that (all his cafés already had a full-length photo of Sai
Baba in the entrance) - and many of the prerequisites for such an experience
to be generated by the subconscious mind are present.
Tigrett's experiences as well as those of long-term Sai followers people
such as Krystal, the Druckers, Michael Goldstein, Datuk Jegathesan, Indulal
Shah, Paul William Roberts, and many more confirmed Baba-addicts share
the same views - is that Sai Baba can rightfully abuse people sexually,
preside over their murders, and whatever else he may decide because he
is God! Add to this the immoral and near imbecilic rider "because
he does everything only for the good of those involved". These people
all realise that Sai is a sexual abuser and is an accomplice to murder,
and it does not affect their faith in him. So the long-term follower is
like a confirmed and self-declared alcoholic... can't stop, can't change,
has to break more and more rules so as to keep going. There is an inevitability
to their lives due to having become so thoroughly deceived time and again
- not least by the occasional siddhi, possibly - so completely absorbed
in the Sai connection in all aspects of their lives, that there is no
way out. One would be sorry for them... though they turn their backs on
conscience and cover up, so helplessly deluded they have gradullay become.
Without implying the degree of immorality as shown by Hitler, we are nevertheless
reminded of his last days as an ultimate example of the pressure of one's
past determining one's life fate... he had no other way out than the bunker...
it is inconceivable that he could have surrendered or negotiated a truce,
of course, for his entire adult life took another direction and there
was no turning back. This is the mental life condition to which Tigrett
virtually admits.
